The bill was penned and introduced to state legislature by an employee of the Villages, to prevent the state from allowing counties to increase impact fees. This would directly benefit the Villages developer, who is one of the biggest development companies in the state.

Everyone(including the TV propaganda paper) keeps saying it's a tax increase?! It's an IMPACT FEE! It's called that, because it's based on the "IMPACT" the development would have on the community and surroundings. It's not a BENEFICIAL TAX, based upon what benefit it would have on all of us(whom will pay for it). If this passes, I hope they take it to court, as I don't believe a higher govt body should be able to dictate to a lower body, what taxes or fees it can impose.

And if it passes, and is retroactive, then I think the commissioners should rollback the entire tax increase that was imposed in 2019! Something I was not necessarily in favor of before. Then, let's see how they want to pay for all the items that were put into the increase?! That includes the roads and infrastructure being built down south. It will speak for itself.

I love people who want less taxes but more services. An oxymoron indeed!
I have not read the bill.
Hage is one of over a hundred representatives who voted on the bill.
I have not heard of any of these reps being called “Svengali.”
DeSantis is a terrific governor and is headed for greater things.

Actually the bill originated in 2019, before the current Sumter commissioners even ran for office. It was proposed by a Tampa area representative due to the issue of new commissioners coming on and raising impact fees by a significant amount. Hage is a co sponsor but he didn’t “pen” the bill. It is fine to not like the bill but let’s be accurate in what we write.

Exactly

I see this as a massive PR failure by The Developer. If the Sumter County Commissioners had introduced small increases in property taxes over the years, instead of the BIG increase, it may have gone unnoticed or at least created less fury. His commissioners may well have retained their seats. Then the Developer wouldn't have needed to rely on the State to resolve the problem to his liking.

If they had reduced the discount the Developer currently gets, AND increased the taxes by small percentages, then everyone would have had to chip in a few bucks, and no one would have felt more than a day's annoyance when the first bill came in.

The amount of work the Developer does in order to expand the Villages is staggering. I actually feel they SHOULD get a discounted impact fee per unit, because of it. But I also feel it shouldn't be as significant as it currently is. In addition, I ALSO feel that taxpayers should expect to pay more every few years, rather than pay stagnated taxes for 14 years and then get a sudden shock to their systems.

A bit of both would have gone a LONG way to make this a seamless, painless shift in funds from individual to county/state. The government was in charge of making this happen, and they chose the wrong way of doing it. And now we are ALL paying the price. Taxpayers and Developer.

Well here is the facts. The developers have u pay for development of the land in bonds. The builders sell the house at 2.5 X cost and walk away with over 50% net profit.
It’s really a shame that the developers are crying poor when they should step up and pay for the impact fee they have created. School, roads and medical coverage along with fire and police.
They have to give that fee to the county they build in and not the state.
Then maybe the system would be far for all

So what's the problem ? Object to the Developer making money ? Be a developer yourself. Free country.

Every time we pay our Sumter County property tax, we are, in substance, writing a check to the Developer in the amount of our 25% property tax hike. That tax hike was enacted by the Developer's puppet Commissioners to protect his sweetheart impact fee.

For a good description of the Developer's latest maneuver to protect that sweetheart impact fee, click here: In new bill, The Villages win and taxpayers lose - Orlando Sentinel

Keep this in mind when State Representative Hage is up for re-election in the Republican primary, along with the Developer's two remaining puppet Commissioners: Breeden and Gilpin.

Loss Of Control
 

I am amazed that 66 other counties in Florida seem to have been willing to give up control of impact fees. Each county that imposed impact fees made their own determination of how much those fees should be. They no longer have that control. I wonder if the major developers in these other counties are as strong as our developer? The vote seemed very lopsided in favor of all developers in the state. IMHO, the advocates for higher impact fees in Sumter County, won the battle but lost the war. They say you can’t fight city hall. We must replace the two remaining Commissioners along with Baxley and Hage.

Wonder how much the going rate to buy these people is these days?

I really think it’s damn funny that you people ****ed off at the Developer still live here; there are so many people that don’t like what they do but continue to live here.

If I hated a place as much as some of you do, I’d sell (for a very good profit) and move to the place that you think is Nirvana.

I'm confused, the bill says impact fees can be increased up to 50 percent?

How is that different from what the commissioners approved?

The criticism is corrupt local politics. That is something to be addressed and cleaned up, not moved away from. Tossing out Butler, Burgess, and Printz was a good first step, but obviously not enough. Breeden, Gilpin, Hage, and Baxley also have to go.